The DIY thread - DIYourself

[iman29]

I got the prelit tree up early this past week. Last night one level of the branches went out luckily before it got decorated.

My first impulse was to throw it outside and set it in fire but then I’d have to buy a new one. Instead I found the little bag of extra bulbs and went one branch and bulb and a time and of course it was on the last branch when I found the bad one.

Not an easy one but claiming a win. Or a Xmas miracle.

 

[jmanic]

I got the prelit tree up early this past week. Last night one level of the branches went out luckily before it got decorated.

My first impulse was to throw it outside and set it in fire but then I’d have to buy a new one. Instead I found the little bag of extra bulbs and went one branch and bulb and a time and of course it was on the last branch when I found the bad one.

Not an easy one but claiming a win. Or a Xmas miracle.View attachment 251549

For next time, try this.

LightKeeper Pro Lightkeeper Pro 1203-CD - The Home Depot

Choose this LightKeeper Pro Light Tester to ensure your Christmas lights stay perfect this holiday season. Easy to repair.

www.homedepot.com

Haven’t done a full diagnostic/repair, but this worked well enough to get done extra life out of the prelit tree

 

[Red Mosquito]

The grease helped, but it still needed way more finagling than the 1/2in get it all back in place. Ready to do brakes tomorrow 😒

 

[JDurk]

I can’t get the toggle part in there without compressing the spring.

This might show you a solution.

 

[Red Mosquito]

This might show you a solution.

good idea, I thought about doing that with a light feeler gauge but it didn’t flex enough. I’m surprised an index card was stiff enough. Hopefully I’ll remember that 20 years from now when I pull it apart again.

 

[Cole]

good idea, I thought about doing that with a light feeler gauge but it didn’t flex enough. I’m surprised an index card was stiff enough. Hopefully I’ll remember that 20 years from now when I pull it apart again.

A trip to Lowe's may have been faster ..

 

[Red Mosquito]

A trip to Lowe's may have been faster ..

Way more fun to take it apart then hope I can put it back together again.

 

[qclabrat]

good idea, I thought about doing that with a light feeler gauge but it didn’t flex enough. I’m surprised an index card was stiff enough. Hopefully I’ll remember that 20 years from now when I pull it apart again.

Planning to use a cut soda can, will let you know how it comes out

 

[Karate Monkey]

Sewing needle 🙂

 

[Santapez]

A trip to Lowe's may have been faster ..

Trip to Lowe's gets you a made-in-China model though.

And now that I think of it, there must be some magic trick to assembling these. I do recall two decades ago bringing in 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets to Sears and sometimes they'd give me a new as a swap, sometimes they'd spend 5 minutes rebuilding them. So I assume that the fact that they did the rebuild with ease, they had some trick.

 

[Red Mosquito]

Trip to Lowe's gets you a made-in-China model though.

And now that I think of it, there must be some magic trick to assembling these. I do recall two decades ago bringing in 1/4" and 3/8" ratchets to Sears and sometimes they'd give me a new as a swap, sometimes they'd spend 5 minutes rebuilding them. So I assume that the fact that they did the rebuild with ease, they had some trick.

Just stumbled across this when looking up rebuild kits

 

[qclabrat]

Question on winterizing an unused vacation home with hot water baseboard heating. I used to turn down the thermostat to the lowest setting and leave it there all winter. But I recently read about people in Canada winterizing their cabin by used a nontoxic antifreeze. Is that worth doing in NJ? It's probably time to get a smart thermostat as well. Am I better off just turning on the boiler when it gets below freezing? Also what about the hot water heater? I usually just turn it off, is there an after market smart controller for them? The tank is about 10 years old.

 

[qclabrat]

Did all three, though only one was not working. Very simple and soda can shim worked great.

 

[Bike N Gear]

I thought of the pins, but that particle board clearly looks to not be the best. And you'd need to move the shelf enough to drill the holes for the pins, I'm assuming the other end of the shelf is held in with a dowel and may not like moving around while drilling those holes.

I should post in this thread more often. Oddly enough I've been building shelf units recently and have been using a ton of those pins and drilling the holes with a hole jig.

Revisiting this project as the cabinet is finally empty.

Turns out the side boards of the cabinet are only 1/2” thick. Makes me think screwing into a wood support might just postpone until the next collapse.

Any glue that would actually last?

 

[Red Mosquito]

Revisiting this project as the cabinet is finally empty.

Turns out the side boards of the cabinet are only 1/2” thick. Makes me think screwing into a wood support might just postpone until the next collapse.

Any glue that would actually last?View attachment 252421View attachment 252422

What is under the chipped part, dowels? If so just cut a new piece of 1x8 or whatever it is and lay it on top of the dowels on each side. You can get fancy and notch them where the dowels are so the shelf won’t pull out.

 

[Patrick]

https://www.amazon.com/Bracket-Support-L-Shaped-Holders-Cabinets/dp/B0BVLRDR9N

 

[ekuhn]

Built and set a new long arm mailbox post. PT 5x5s. Previous one was on street side of the ditch and was sloppy.




Annual Generator Service. Reminds me I need to find a cheap oil extractor.



Needed to rewire a bedroom switch since I put in a ceiling. 3 wire cable was there, but they were both wired to the hot side of the switch and it was also feeding the outlet circuit. This isn't the first time I've seen switches in the house blow apart like this as I've replaced a few already. New dimmer switch for the lights and its back and ready to go.

 

[iman29]

got a text this morning from the youngest when he was leaving for work the garage fridge freezer is broken since some stuff was defrosted. Went down to check it and it wasn’t that bad but ice cream and some other stuff was soft.

I thought it was because the door got left slightly open but this also happened the other day and I remembered that a few years back we had a cold spell like this and I had bought an “ambient temp heater” but never installed it.

Somehow found it on my work desk in the basement. It’s basically a heat pad that keeps the thermostat a little warmer so the fridge stays running which also supplies the cold
Air for the freezer.

Instructions were pretty good and it took me about 10 minutes altogether. I read a little more about it and I might either need to wire in a toggle switch for it or just disconnect it when the warmer weather comes back so it doesn’t continually run. I’d just have to disconnect the extra leads and plug back in the main wires direct so nothing too complicated.

I put a digital thermometer in the freezer and checked a few hours later and the temp was way back down so looking good for now.

 

[Bike N Gear]

Anyone know if this can be repaired or does it need replacing to fix a leak?

 

[ekuhn]

Anyone know if this can be repaired or does it need replacing to fix a leak?

View attachment 252873

Need a new cartridge as the o-ring is prob shot. The top half should spin out, possibly reverse thread, take to home depot and match up. But shut the water off first from the angle stop below the sink.

Unless you want to impress your wife for 2025 and upgrade the fixture, you can replace.